[Cloud City · Traffic Management Center · Surveillance Review Room]
On the night of the incident, Camera 3 in the back alley behind Night Wanderer Bar captured two people.
The first was Zhang Yunxiang.
The second—no one knew who that was.
Yin Wuwang stood at the entrance to the surveillance review room, looking at the wall of screens before him. The first thought that crossed his mind was:
So this is mortals' clairvoyance technique?
Little Deer Assistant 9527 chimed in at just the right moment: "This is called a surveillance system. Cameras are everywhere in the city, and the footage they capture is transmitted here for centralized storage. You can think of it as... a citywide clairvoyance formation, but with worse image quality."
Yin Wuwang swept his gaze across the blurry black-and-white images on those screens.
"Worse" was being generous. In the cultivation world, any random clairvoyance technique on Snow Void Peak could show you the wing-vein patterns of a dragonfly from five hundred li away. This mortal clairvoyance array couldn't even resolve a human face clearly—they had to count themselves lucky it was "at least usable."
Then again—mortals had no spiritual energy. That they could accomplish this much with "machinery" alone was actually quite impressive.
He withdrew his gaze and looked toward Xie Qingyan, who walked ahead of him.
Xie Qingyan wore a white shirt, sleeves rolled up three inches above his wrists, speaking with the surveillance room technician. The technician was a young man with glasses who became very cooperative the moment he heard they were from the Major Crimes Unit.
"Dr. Shen, Officer Jiang, you want footage from October 17th, correct?" The technician typed as he spoke. "There are four camera positions around Night Wanderer Bar. Let me pull up the time range first."
"Starting from eight PM," Xie Qingyan said, "to two AM."
"Got it. One moment."
The technician's fingers flew across the keyboard. Yin Wuwang stood beside him watching for a while, mentally noting the operating procedures. The debacle with the TV remote wouldn't happen again—this sovereign was the type who learned things the first time.
Little Deer Assistant added: "Accessing surveillance footage requires police authorization. Captain Lin already made arrangements with this department. Your identities are Major Crimes Unit, so you can just come directly."
Yin Wuwang made a sound of acknowledgment but didn't engage further.
His attention had already shifted to something else.
The surveillance room wasn't large. Four monitors sat on a long table with only two chairs in front of it. The technician occupied one; Xie Qingyan took the other.
Yin Wuwang walked over and discovered there were no extra chairs.
He stood behind Xie Qingyan, looking down at the screen.
His line of sight passed over Xie Qingyan's shoulder, just able to see the display. But the angle was slightly off—the details on the screen weren't quite clear.
He shifted half a step to the left.
Still not enough.
He leaned forward a little more.
Xie Qingyan's back of the head was now less than a palm's width from his chin. The air carried a very faint scent—not perfume; Xie Qingyan didn't use that sort of thing. It was the smell of laundry detergent mixed with the coolness of early morning. Clean and fresh.
Yin Wuwang thought to himself: This sovereign is just looking at the screen.
Then he thought: The screen is too small. Leaning closer is reasonable.
Then he thought: Did Fuguang's hair grow a bit longer since yesterday?
Finally, he slammed on the mental brakes: What am I thinking?
"It's up." The technician said.
Four camera angles appeared on the screens simultaneously.
Upper left showed the bar's main entrance; upper right showed the alley beside the bar; lower left showed the back alley entrance; lower right showed the depths of the back alley—where an employee passage's iron door stood.
The footage was black and white, the resolution admittedly poor, but the outlines of figures and their movements were still visible.
"Start from nine-thirty." Xie Qingyan said.
The technician dragged the timeline. The footage fast-forwarded, pedestrians on the street coming and going as if under an acceleration spell.
9:32 PM. A man's figure appeared in the main entrance footage.
"That's Zhang Yunxiang." Xie Qingyan pointed at the screen.
Yin Wuwang nodded. Even with the blurry image quality, he recognized that slightly swaying gait—during interrogation, Zhang Yunxiang had had that same shrinking posture, shoulders slightly hunched forward, as if always ready to curl into an even smaller ball.
"He'd already been drinking." Yin Wuwang said.
"How can you tell?" The technician asked curiously.
"His center of gravity is unsteady while walking, but not to the point of being unable to walk." Yin Wuwang said. "Roughly fifty to sixty percent drunk."
The technician looked impressed. Xie Qingyan didn't turn his head, but the corner of his mouth shifted slightly—so subtle you wouldn't notice unless you were watching closely.
Yin Wuwang noticed.
This sovereign has lived three thousand years. What subtle expression changes haven't I seen? That movement at the corner of Fuguang's mouth was precisely about 0.3 inches, upward, lasting less than two seconds.
That was Fuguang's reaction when he found something "not bad."
He suppressed a flicker of restlessness in his heart and continued watching the screen.
Zhang Yunxiang entered the bar. Nothing else stirred in the main entrance footage.
"Switch to the back alley." Xie Qingyan said.
The technician enlarged the lower-left footage.
9:45 PM—no one in the back alley.
10:11 PM—still no one in the back alley.
10:28 PM—
A figure walked in from the alley entrance.
Yin Wuwang narrowed his eyes.
That person wasn't Zhang Yunxiang. Taller build, steadier gait. Wearing a dark jacket with hands in pockets, he walked to the middle of the back alley and stopped.
He stood there as if waiting for someone.
"Who is this?" The technician asked.
Xie Qingyan didn't answer. His gaze locked onto the screen, his expression shifting from calm to focused—the kind of focus a sword cultivator had when locking onto prey on the battlefield.
Yin Wuwang recognized that look.
He leaned forward—this time not because the screen was too small, but because he genuinely needed to see the details in the footage clearly. His shoulder nearly pressed against Xie Qingyan's shoulder.
The distance between them was close enough that Yin Wuwang could feel Xie Qingyan's body heat coming through the shirt fabric.
Xie Qingyan didn't move away.
He didn't even react—all his attention was on the screen.
Three things ran through Yin Wuwang's mind simultaneously: Fuguang didn't move away; getting close for case-related reasons didn't count as getting close; his shoulder really was quite warm.
The first two were excuses. The third wasn't.
The technician glanced at them, then silently turned back around. Yin Wuwang noticed the corner of the technician's mouth twitch.
Stop looking. This sovereign is working a case.
Little Deer Assistant's voice drifted through his mind: "Reminder: For a couple who've been together two years, shoulder-to-shoulder contact is normal, but your heart rate seems a bit abnormal."
Yin Wuwang mentally replied with one word: Scram.
[End of V2_Chapter 22]
Next: A third person in the shadows, a woman who waited, and two people who definitely aren't standing too close.